Understanding our cities with FOSS4G
10-19, 11:45–12:10 (Pacific/Auckland), Plenary

This talk will describe how FOSS4G and open data enable urban analytics - analyses to better understand our cities. Examples include walkability, public transport accessibility and analysis of urban form and function.


Open source tools and open data are the backbone of urban analytics - from wellbeing-related analyses like walkability and public transport accessibility to analysis of urban form and function. This talk will go through several case studies, for cities in New Zealand as well as around the world, highlighting urban insights as well as the amazing work of open source developers (in R and Python), open data mappers and curious citizens. Analyses will be introduced from simple to complex and each example will end with advice for budding urbanists on how they can build their skills in urban analytics and use it to understand the cities they are passionate about.

Shrividya (Shriv) is a data scientist working to push the analytics capabilities of public sector work in transport. Her passion is urban analytics - using open tools and data to understand cities, especially those in the developing world.